From DJ Toomp’s uncanny ability to find samples at the end of songs to Wonder Arillo replaying Roberta Flack on his laptop, we dive deep into the beat that changed T.I.’s career.

Atlanta hip-hop pioneer DJ Toomp’s love for altering and recontextualizing sound began with his father Alphonzo ‘Al’ Davis, a member of the funk/soul quartet The M.V.P.’s. Briefly signed to Buddha Records during the early 1970s — the same label Curtis Mayfield and Gladys Knights and the Pips once called home — he still remembers his dad’s tutelage during his younger years. “My father was the lead singer [in the group] and he can still sing his ass off,” Toomp told XXL in a 2008 interview. “We used to sing in the car together and he used to teach me harmonies. So I was always interested in music.”

Davis also helped his son cultivate a deep reverence for vinyl records. While many parents in the 70s and 80s would forbid their kids to touch their turntables and record collections, Toomp’s experience was the exact opposite. “My dad used to let me flip through his records and just listen to shit, around 9 or 10,” he told Genius in a verified comment from 2016. It was during these listening sessions that he stumbled upon Robert Flack’s “Gone Away”, which would provide the backbone of his biggest record many years later.

Unfortunately, his father’s career in the industry didn’t last long, as side hustles outside the bounds of the law led to his eventual incarceration. Other relatives who also played a major role in Toomp’s life experienced even more devastating outcomes. “They got in a little trouble,” Toomp told Creative Loafing in a 2007 interview. “My dad had to sit down and went to jail for some years. My uncle, he got murdered.”

“My father was the lead singer [in the group] and he can still sing his ass off. We used to sing in the car together and he used to teach me harmonies.” — DJ Toomp

Grandmaster Flash’s kitchen scene in ‘Wild Style’.

Despite the sad end to his father’s career and the pain of losing his uncle, Toomp is still grateful for the lessons they bestowed upon him while he was growing up. “I can definitely say I learned a lot from them,” he toldCreative Loafing.

As Toomp entered his teenage years, rap music and hip-hop culture were making their presence felt in Atlanta. When an eager 13-year-old Toomp sat down to watch the movie Wild Style at a local theatre in 1983, one moment from the film stayed with him for the rest of his life — the iconic scene where Grandmaster Flash cuts up records in his kitchen. Something about watching Flash on the turntables resonated with Toomp in a way childhood sports and other activities never had. Once the movie was over, he knew he had to try his hand at DJing.

A few years later Toomp was DJing at lunchtime during the school day and selling people custom mixtapes for $5 to $10 a pop. He eventually connected with high school classmate and Atlanta MC Raheem the Dream as his reputation behind the wheels of steel continued to spread. At only 16 years of age, he’d already procured his first songwriting credit with Raheem and developed a sense of how to work his way around various pieces of studio gear.

“Some of the end-parts of a lot of those records from the 70s be the most musical part with the most feeling. A lot of joints that I’ve actually sampled is usually the end part.” — DJ Toomp

It was around the time Toomp earned his first songwriting credit that Miami producer Amos Larkins II accidentally created bass music. Bass quickly spread from Florida to Atlanta, and Toomp became an active participant in the vibrant scene taking place around him. After locking down a residency at Jellybean’s Skating Rink — a locale that later inspired the 2006 file ATL —he won a major Atlanta DJ competition and caught the eye of esteemed bass artist and Luke Skyywalker Records/2 Live Crew associate MC Shy D. He relocated to Florida in the late 80s to cement their creative partnership and produced cuts for Shy D like “I Wanna Dance” and the 1988 down south hit “Shake It”.

The music video for MC Shy D’s “Shake It”.

As the 80s gave way to the 90s Toomp continued his hot streak by producing “In The Dust” for 2 Live Crew. When the song made its way to the New Jack City soundtrack, it should have been celebrated as a major success. Instead, Toomp had to swallow the bitter pill of not being fairly credited for his work. “I got a little green off of it, but I never did end up with the black and white: which is the publishing and all the rights and stuff,” he told Complex in a 2012 interview.

Adding insult to injury, bass music started to lose steam with the general public as the decade wore on. With most of his production credits sitting firmly within the genre, Toomp’s opportunities to work with other artists started to slow. Then, in 1997, his career started to gain steam again as he locked down three beats for Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz’ Get Crunk, Who U Wit: Da Album.

“I used to love that part. It used to almost bring tears to my eyes. I always remembered that melody.” — DJ Toomp

That same year Toomp met a then-17-year-old rapper and PSC group member named T.I. The two formed an instant bond and Toomp went on to produce six songs for T.I.’s 2001 LaFace debut I’m Serious, including the minor hit “Dope Boyz”. Though T.I. and Toomp laid down enough tracks together to fill several Micro-Chop articles, 2006’s “What You Know” was the record that forever changed both of their careers. One of Toomp’s earliest tracks made with Propellerhead’s Reason software, he credits “What You Know” collaborator Wonder Arillo for showing him how to synchronize the software with his MPC.

The official “What You Know” music video.

The two producers first connected while Arillo was just a senior at Georgia State University. Using his own four-track, a microphone gifted to him by his father, and whatever gear he could get his hands on at school, Arillo had spent his entire college career honing his musical craft and building a broad range of skills. When a mutual friend of both producers cut a song with Toomp and was looking for an inexpensive place to mix it, Arillo jumped at the opportunity to meet the Atlanta legend. “It turned out that Toomp had just bought ProTools for his studio, so I immediately volunteered to help set it up and teach him how to use it,” Arillo told Rap Industry in a 2013 interview. “In return, he showed me how to use a lot of his equipment. The relationship grew from there.”

In addition to newfound technology, Toomp utilized his deep collection of vinyl to find the appropriate inspiration for “What You Know”, often going to the end of songs to find hidden sample sources. “Some of the end-parts of a lot of those records from the 70s be the most musical part with the most feeling,” he toldComplex. “A lot of joints that I’ve actually sampled is usually the end part.”

“I recorded a little snippet of it, put it on my computer, and just went home and went to work in my bedroom and figured it out note for note.” — Wonder Arillo

As he messed around in Reason, Toomp revisited the end part of Roberta Flack’s “Gone Away”, a song that had held a special place in his heart since childhood. “I used to love that part,” he told Fuse TV for a 2012 episode of Crate Diggers series while describing the song’s ending. “It used to almost bring tears to my eyes. I always remembered that melody.”

Roberta Flack’s “Gone Away”, the inspiration/interpolation for “What You Know”.

Unfortunately, Toomp’s love for the song didn’t necessarily equal initial success. Unable to make the sample work they way he wanted, he employed extensive chopping with his ASR-10 to try to make the pieces of the puzzle fit — all to no avail. “I tried looping that sample and it didn’t work,” he told Red Bull Music Academy in a 2008 interview. “I broke it down on the ASR into like 20 pieces and it still didn’t fit so I decided to just play it all over.”

Beyond Toomp’s longstanding history with “Gone Away”, it seems like Arillo also played a key role in pulling it back out of his crates for sampling purposes. “I just found that record in his studio,” he told The Good HenneC Show in a 2015 interview. “I couldn’t get the sample right, I was trying to sample it and chop it up.”

“The hook came within 10 minutes. He did the first verse when I was there, then, later on, he finished it like two days later.” — DJ Toomp

According to Arillo, the sample had too many musical elements happening at once to chop up and rework, so he decided to replay it. “I recorded a little snippet of it, put it on my computer, and just went home and went to work in my bedroom and figured it out note for note,” he toldSpitYoGame.com in a 2006 interview. “Then I put the different instruments and stuff, like the synthesizers and all that. Basically, I had the whole thing fully orchestrated, but it was like a slower version.”

Acknowledging that his drums were somewhat lacking at the time, Arillo brought the rough version of “What You Know” back to Toomp, who absolutely loved it. Seeing that Arillo’s rough draft needed some further polish, Toomp altered the speed of the sample and reworked the drums with his MPC. “He sped it up, totally re-did the drums on his MP with all his own drum sounds,” Arillo toldSpitYoGame.com.

In addition to the necessary neck-snapping percussion, Toomp worked on the song arrangement and wove in the bassline along with some additional bells and whistles. “I marinated with it for a few days, put the track around it, the bass line, all the extras,” he toldGenius.

“Most of these records are done in like a half hour because I had so much to say, so much on my mind. I wasn’t writing at all.” — T.I.

Now that Arillo and Toomp had the track finalized, Toomp shopped it around to find the appropriate artist. 8 Ball & MJG cut a song to it, as did Benzino and Baby. Jeezy also almost ended up with the beat, but a bad case of strep throat prevented him from utilizing it right away.

DJ Toomp’s 2008 Red Bull Music Academy lecture.

Despite the interest generated by the instrumental, Toomp still hadn’t heard a final product from the above-mentioned rappers that stopped him from playing it for other interested artists. That’s when T.I.’s team approached him, told him about the ATL movie project that star rapper was slotted to appear in, and asked for a hit record.

When Toomp came to the studio and played the beat, everyone’s enthusiasm and T.I.’s desire to record to it right away let him know he had something special on his hands. “He started working on the hook within 10 minutes of hearing the beat and it was just out of here from there,” Toomp told DJ Booth in a 2014 interview. “The hook came within 10 minutes. He did the first verse when I was there, then, later on, he finished it like two days later.”

“It gave me financial freedom to be able to put time into music and to be able to take care of a new daughter that I had. I don’t know how I would have done it, man. It’s a gift from God.” — Wonder Arillo

T.I. credited his incredible expediency in coming up with songs for the King album to his desire to share his experiences with the world. “Most of these records are done in like a half hour because I had so much to say, so much on my mind,” he told Genius in a 2016 interview. “I wasn’t writing at all.”

DJ Toomp and Wonder Arillo at the premiere for ‘ATL’.

As the club, radio, and video play for the song reached meteoric heights, “What You Know” went double platinum, won a Grammy, and climbed at the way to #3 on the April 2006 Billboard Hot 100. The success of the track led to a whole slew of opportunities for DJ Toomp that hadn’t been there before, including production credits with Jay-Z and Kanye West. “That opened a lot of doors, because it showed another side of my production,” Toomp toldRed Bull Music Academy. “It went way beyond the down-South bass and the drums. It was more musical, and it was more like an anthem and a lot of people wanted that sound.”

Artists who had initially requested the instrumental may have been a tad salty about their missed opportunity at first, but they eventually acknowledged that Toomp had made the right decision. “Some people took it kind of hard, but at the end of the day they had to basically commend me,” he toldComplex. “They were like, ‘We wouldn’t have been able to do what this song did. We’re glad that you let T.I. get this record.’”

“I tried looping that sample and it didn’t work. I broke it down on the ASR into like 20 pieces and it still didn’t fit so I decided to just play it all over.” — DJ Toomp

“What You Know” was also a watershed moment in Wonder Arillo’s life, though his official job title with regards to the track remains a bit opaque. He indicated in the 2006 SpitYoGame.com interview that he was not credited as co-producer inside the King CD booklet, but went on to say that the people at Grand Hustle/Atlantic did acknowledge him as co-producer as well as a songwriter and compensated him appropriately. And when a debate regarding his role in making the record jumped off in the Future Producers forums, he stepped in to clarify. “My Grammy certificate says co-producer,” he wrote in a 2008 post. “Technically and officially, DJ Toomp, my mentor and big homie, produced the song. However, I am credited as a writer.”

DJ Toomp’s episode of ‘Crate Diggers’.

Arillo further explained that the song was a collaborative effort and indicated that his feelings about “What You Know” and his resulting credits are very positive. In his eyes, Toomp’s production took his idea from an intriguing rough draft to the enduring classic it is today. “As far as the creation of the beat (not the production of the song) Toomp and I did that TOGETHER,” he wrote. “I did start the basic idea on Reason on my laptop and brought it to him to help fill it out and make it into a professional production, which he did masterfully.”

For those wondering if Arillo’s feelings of gratitude regarding the experience have changed in the past decade, his 2015 The Good HenneC Showinterview should put any questions to rest. “It gave me financial freedom to be able to put time into music and to be able to take care of a new daughter that I had,” he said. “I don’t know how I would have done it, man. It’s a gift from God.”